Shoe clamp



3, 1955 w. G. HEIBER 2,715,740

SHOE CLAMP Filed Dec. 3, 1952 M ATTORNEY United States Patent 9 SHOE CLAMP William G. Heiber, Brighton, N. Y.

Application December 3, 1952, Serial No. 323,846

5 Claims. (Q3. 12-403) This invention relates to a shoe clamp of the general type employed for holding a prewelt, stitch-down, or other type shoe in proper position on a last while cementing or otherwise aflixing an outer sole thereto, and has for its purpose to provide a clamp that can be accurately and uniformly arranged in relation to the upper and welt and attached without injury to the heel portion of the upper.

One problem in connection with such clamps has been to insure always positioning the clamp in proper relation endwise of a shoe as the clamping plates are brought into clamping relationship so that the shoe is not engaged more closely at one end than at the other, and while provision has heretofore been made for a positioning device pivoted to one of the clamping plates and overlying both clamping plates at the heel portion when in clamping position, this structure has the objection that it frequently engages the upper at a point somewhat above the welt, disfiguring or damaging the upper and not insuring the proper positioning of the clamp endwise of the shoe, and a particular purpose of the invention is to afford a clamp that provides shoe-engaging portions which insure uniform engagement between the welt and upper immediately above the welt and entirely around the shoe, the clamp being engaged immediately adjacent to the welt or in the crease of the upper around the heel portion as well as the toe portion of the shoe, thus avoiding possibility of damage to the upper that otherwise results from engagement of the clamp with the surface of the upper around the heel portion above the welt or above the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates.

More particularly the invention has for its purpose to afford a clamp including two clamping plates with shoeengaging portions extending around the forward end and along the sides of a shoe when in operative position, and a positioning and clamping element arranged between the rear ends of the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates, thereby forming with the clamping plates a continuous shoe-engaging edge, such rear positioning and clamping element engaging the shoe adjacent to the welt or in the crease of the upper at the rear of the heel portion of the shoe.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a shoe clamp with a positioning and clamping element pivoted to one of the clamping plates and movable independently thereof, together with cam means that automatically actua-tes said positioning and clamping element into clamping position as the clamping plates are brought together.

Still a further purpose of the invention is to provide a shoe clamp with a positioning and clamping element that engages a shoe at the rear of the heel portion, alfording with the clamping plates a continuous shoe-engaging edge, and acting to insure moving the shoe forwardly of the clamp into proper engagement with the toe portion of the clamp, without possibility of marring or damaging the upper at the heel portion of the shoe.

To these and other ends, the invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts that will appear clearly from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the novel features being pointed out in the claims following the specification.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a plan view of a shoe clamp constructed in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, illustrating the parts with the clamping plates in open position before being applied to a shoe;

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the position of the parts when opera-ted to final clamping position;

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of the same;

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view on line 5-5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view partially broken away, showing the positioning and clamping element, and

Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken on line 7-7 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction indicated.

This invention is in the nature of an improvement on the shoe clamp disclosed in Patent No. 2,168,935, dated August 8, 1939, which device was open to the objection that the two clamping plates had bevelled shoe-engaging portions extending entirely around the shoe while a positioning member was arranged over and rested on the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates, with the result that the positioning member engaged the shoe at too high a point with reference to the welt, and frequently caused the upper to be damaged or marred. It was impossible with the prior clamp to always insure proper and uniform positioning of the shoe in relation to the clamp and remove the possibility of damage to the upper, and the present structure overcomes this objection by terminating or cutting away the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates so that their rear ends are spaced from one another and arranging a positioning and clamping element therebetween with a shoe-engaging portion that engages the shoe in the same plane with the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates at a point adjacent to the welt or in the crease of the upper, such positioning and clamping element functioning to engage the shoe between the upper and welt at the rear of the heel portion and to force the shoe forwardly so that it is engaged by the clamp uniformly around the forward and rear ends.

Referring more particularly to the drawings in which like reference numerals refer to the same parts throughout the several views, the pivotally connected clamping plates are indicated at 1 and 2 respectively, being connected by a hinge 3 fixedly attached to the clamping plate 1 and hinged to the clamping plate 2 at 4. The clamping plates 1 and 2 are brought into and held in clamping relation by an operating lever 5 that is pivoted to the clamping plate 2 at 6 and has a U-shaped retaining member or yoke 7 pivotally mounted thereon and engageable with a shoulder 8 on the clamping plate 1 to hold the plates in clamping relation when the lever 5 is operated to the position shown in Fig. 2.

The structure thus far described is similar to what is illustrated in the aforementioned patent and forms no part of the invention. In order to accomplish the purposes of the present invention, clamping plate 1 is provided with a shoe-engaging bevelled portion 9 which extends along one side of the clamping plate 1 to a point spaced from the rear of the heel portion when in clamping position and clamping plate 2 has a bevelled shoeengaging portion 11 that extends from the shoe-engaging portion 9 across the forward end and along the other side of the shoe to a point spaced from the rear of the heel portion so that when the clamping plates are in closed position, there is a gap between the rear ends of the shoe-engaging portions 9 and 11, this gap being occupied by a positioning and clamping element that forms a continuation of the shoe-engaging portions 9 and 11 and engages the shoe in the same plane with said shoeengaging portions 9 and 11.

This objective is attained by the positioning and clampingelement including an ear 12 that is pivoted to the clamping plate 1 at 13 and having a slight movement on the clamping plate. The body portion of the positioning and clamping element lies in the space provided between the rear ends of the shoe-engaging portions 9 and 11 on the clamping plates 1 and 2, the bottom surface of the positioning and clamping element being flush with the bottom surfaces of the clamping plates 1 and 2 while the ends of the positioning and clamping element are inclined as at 14 for engagement with correspondingly inclined surfaces at the forward ends of the shoe-engaging portions 9 and 11 of the clamping plates 1 and 2.

As the clamping plates are moved together into clamping position, it is necessary to swing the positioning and clamping element forwardly toward the front of the clamp in order to force the shoe forwardly of the clamp and this is accomplished by providing the clamping plate 2 with a cam surface 15 that engages the surface 16 of the positioning and clamping element and actuates it forwardly as the clamping plates are closed, moving the positioning and clamping element into final clamping position between the shoe-engaging portions: of the clamping plates 1 and 2, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

The positioning and clamping element includes a shoeengaging portion 17 that is bevelled on a steeper angle than the shoe-engaging portions 9 and 11 of the clamping plates and the bevel of the shoe-engaging portion 17 is of increasing steepness from one end to the other. Thus the initial engagement of the positioning and clamping element with the shoe between the welt and upper is along an angle slightly steeper than that of the adjacent shoe-engaging portion of clamping plate 2 and as the positioning and clamping element is moved toward final position, it engages the shoe with an increasingly sharp angle, thus camming or wedging the shoe forwardly of the clamp so that in its final position, the shoe is gripped uniformly at both the front and rear ends and around the sides while at the same time the positioning and clamping element at the rear is engaged with the shoe in the same plane as the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates at a point immediately adjacent to the welt or in the crease of the upper, and there is no chance for the clamp tov mar or damage the upper by engaging the heel portion of the upper at points substantially above the welt or bottom of the upper.

In the operation of the clamp, with the clamping plates in the position illustrated in Fig. 1, a shoe is first positioned with the shoe-engaging portion 11 of the clamping plate 2 between the upper and welt around the front end and along one side of the shoe, following which the clamping plate 1 is swung inwardly toward the clamping plate 2, causing the positioning and clamping element at the rear to be swung forwardly at the same time to its final position between the shoe-engaging portions 9 and 11 and to move the shoe forwardly to exactly proper position. The shoe-engaging portion 17 of the positioning and clamping element is thus engaged with the rear of the heel portion of the shoe between the rear ends of the shoe-engaging portions 9 and 11. The yoke 7 is then swung around until it overlies the shoulder 8 of the clamping plate 1 and the lever 5 is operated in a clockwise direction to tighten the yoke 7 against the shoulder 8, and the clamp is thus tightly secured to the shoe.

While the invention has been described with reference to the structure shown herein, it is not confined to the details set forth, and this application is intended to cover such modifications or departures as may come within the purposes of the improvements or the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A shoe clamp comprising a pair of pivotally con gaging portions, and a cam surface on the said one clamping plate operating to engage and move said positioning and clamping element into clamping position, said positioning and clamping element having a bevelled shoeengaging portion engaging the rear of the heel portion of the shoe in the same plane as the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates.

2. A shoe clamp comprising a pair of pivotally connected clamping plates having bevelled shoe-engaging portions positionable between the welt and upper of a shoe around the forward end and along the sides thereof, said shoe-engaging portions terminating at the heel portion in spaced relation to one another, means carried by one of said clamping plates for holding said plates in clamping relation, a positioning and clamping element pivoted to the other of said clamping plates and operatively arranged between the rear ends of said shoeengaging portions, said positioning and clamping element having a bevelled shoe-engaging portion engaging the rear of the heel portion of the shoe in the same plane as the shoeengaging portions of the clamping plates, and a cam surface on the said one clamping plate engageable with said positioning and clamping element and operating to move the same into clamping position as said clamping plates are brought together.

3. A shoe clamp comprising a pair of pivotally connected clamping plates having bevelled shoe-engaging portions positionable between the welt and upper of a shoe around the forward end and along the sides thereof, said bevelled shoe-engaging portions terminating at the heel portion in spaced relation to one another, means carried by one of said clamping plates for holding said plates in clamping relation, a positioning and clamping element pivoted to the other of said clamping plates and operatively arranged between the rear ends of said bevelled shoe-engaging portions, said positioning and clamping element having a bevelled shoe-engaging portion extending between said clamping plates and forming acontinuation of and bevelled at a steeper angle than the bevelled shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates, and a cam surface on the said one clamping plate engageable with said positioning and clamping element and operating to move the same into clamping position as the clamping plates are brought together.

4. A shoe clamp comprising a pair of pivotall-y connected clamping plates having bevelled shoe-engaging portions positionable between the welt and upper of a shoe around the forward end and along the sides thereof, said bevelled shoe-engaging portions terminating at the heel portion in spaced relation to one another, means carried by one of said clamping plates for holding said plates in clamping relation, and a positioning and clamping element pivoted to the other of said clamping plates and operatively arranged between the rear ends of said bevelled shoe-engaging portions, said positioning and clamping element having a bevelled shoe-engaging portion extending between said clamping plates and engaging the rear of the heel portion of the shoe in the same plane as the shoe-engaging portions of the clamping plates and bevelled at a steeper angle than the bevelled shoeengaging portions of the clamping plates.

5. A shoe clamp comprising, a pair of pivotally: connected clamping plates having bevelled shoe-engaging portions positionable between the welt and upper. of a shoe around the forward end and along the sides thereof,

said bevelled shoe-engaging portions terminating at the heel portion in spaced relation to one another, means carried by one of said clamping plates for holding said clamping plates in clamping relation, a positioning and clamping element pivoted to the other of said clamping plates and having a bevelled shoe-engaging portion extending between said clamping plates and positionable between the rear ends of the shoe-engaging portions of said clamping plates and engageable with the rear of the heel portion of the shoe in the same plane as said shoeengaging portions, said positioning and clamping element having a shoe-engaging portion bevelled at a steeper angle than the shoe-engaging portions on said clamping plates References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Peeler et al. Aug. 8, 1871 Heiber et al. Aug. 8, 1939 

